The Official Scrabble Player's Dictionary, Third Edition: Amazon.ca: Inc. Merriam-Webster: Books

Product Description

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If you're using the 1991 edition or the 1978 original, you're woefully behind the Scrabble-playing times. With more than 100,000 2- to 8-letter words, there are some interesting additions ("aargh," "aarrgh," and "aarrghh" are all legitimate now), while words they consider offensive are no longer kosher. Why subscribe to the Scrabble dictionary's changeable lexicon? Well, it ends the argument of whose dictionary to use, but the main reason is that it's the winner's dictionary, and why play Scrabble if not to win? Memorize those 2- and 3-letter words, and your Scrabble game becomes lethal.

Book Description

An inexpensive edition of the book that SCRABBLE players call their bible. Ideal for recreational and school play. More than 100,000 playable two-to-eight-letter words. Includes British variant spelling for game players in Canada. Endorsed by the National SCRABBLE Association.

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Customer Reviews

48 Reviews

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(16)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(5)

Average Customer Review

3.9 out of 5 stars (48 customer reviews)

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4.0 out of 5 stars Helpful, but technically not official, May 3 2004

By

sadhana444 "sadhana444" (Anchorage, AK United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Official Scrabble Player's Dictionary, Third Edition (Paperback)

If you play scrabble around the home, this is a fun, helpful book to have around.

The National Scrabble Association web page on May 2004, has a tournament rules list that is dated May 2002. In these tournament rules, the reference section is as follows:

a) Official Tournament & Club Word List

Official Tournament & Club Word List (OWL) contains the only 2- to 9-letter words acceptable for club and tournament play, published by Merriam-Webster, Inc.

b) Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, 10th Edition (MW10)
For words of more than nine letters, the OWL is consulted first. If a longer word (more than nine letters) is not listed in the OWL, to be judged acceptable it must appear as a main entry or inflected form or alternate spelling in bold print in (MW10). It must not be capitalized, hyphenated, contracted, foreign or listed only as part of a multi-word phrase.

Words of fewer than 10 letters listed in MW10 but not in the OWL are not acceptable, nor are inflections of main entries of fewer than 10 letters. Any word used in the definition of another word but not listed itself is not acceptable.

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4.0 out of 5 stars Serious Scrabble players: Use it along with the 2nd edition, Mar 25 2004

By

Traveler (New England) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Official Scrabble Player's Dictionary, Third Edition (Paperback)

The 3rd edition of the Scrabble Dictionary, the newest edition as of this writing, will give you the most up-to-date listing of acceptable words to use in Scrabble.

However, many people don't realize that the Scrabble Dictionary went PC in this edition by removing all "offensive" or "vulger" terms. It appears that they wanted to make Scrabble a more family game and thus believed the removal of the bad words was necessary.

Obviously, you don't want your kid using certain four letter words on the board. However, removing these words is rather dishonest. They're words, period, and you can't place a value judgement on whether they're acceptable or not to include in a dictionary. It's like removing certain portions of a science or literature book because someone might be offended. As a result, many hardcore Scrabble players have refused to use the 3rd edition.

I'm sure many people, especially parents, will have no trouble with any of this. But for serious Scrabble players it's necessary to have a dictionary that determines all acceptable words. So what to do? Use both the 2nd and 3rd editions. While it's no longer being published, you can find the 2nd edition in either soft or hardcover on auction sites and at used book stores for a reasonable price.

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4.0 out of 5 stars Toss up but go for it, Mar 18 2004

By

Jacob Hantla "hantla.com" (Chandler, AZ United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Official Scrabble Player's Dictionary, Third Edition (Paperback)

First off, if you don't have a Scrabble dictionary and play Scrabble, you NEED TO buy this book. But let's say that you're like me and you have an older edition. Well the older editions had separate sections that listed all those nifty two letter words that can rack up big points (ex: aa, ae, xi, em, jo, etc). But you can find all of those words in the new one, just not listed separately. However, if you're like me and want to use all the new-fangled words like zit then you won't find them in any edition but the new one. I'm sure that there are many other new words in this edition, zit is just the only one that I've noticed so far. It's a trade-off, yoúr choice: the convenience of common-word lists in the older editions or the proff that newer words exist in the new version. I have both; maybe that's your best bet.

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Most recent customer reviews

1.0 out of 5 stars For cheaters only
That's right, suckaz, if you use this book you are a cheater! You should only be allowed to play words you can actually use in a sentence without consulting a reference. Read more

Published on Jan 26 2004

2.0 out of 5 stars Large print edition too hard to handle.
My grandmother is an avid UpWords player. At 98, her eyesight isn't what it once was, and she needs to use a magnifying glass to use her small print version of this dictionary... Read more

Published on Dec 26 2003